Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 8.djvu/300

248 successful arrangements of Graham during the protracted siege. No sooner had the latter arrived in England at the termination, than he found the whole land ringing with the Egyptian campaign, and the successful struggles by which the military glory ot Britain, so long held in abeyance, had been recalled to its standards. But what chiefly concerned Graham personally, was the gallant deeds of his own regiment, the 90th, which, in conjunction with the 92d, had formed the advanced guard of the British army on their landing at Aboukir. Eager to join his brave fellows, and partake of their glory and danger, he bade a hurried adieu to England ; but on arriving in Egypt he found his presence unnecessary, as the whole French army had capitulated. He therefore left the country for a tour through Turkey, during which he stayed for some time at Constantinople, and afterwards, in consequence of the peace of 1801, he visited France and its capital. The next movement of Graham was to Ireland with his regiment, where he continued from 1803 to 1805, at the end of which, his place of military service was transferred to the West Indies. Here he remained three years, but without that active employment which still continued to be the breath of his nostrils. At last a prospect of occupation occurred in 1808, in consequence of Sir John Moore being appointed to the command of the armament sent to the coast of Sweden ; and having obtained permission to accompany Sir John as aide-de-camp, Graham joined the expedition. It ended, as is well known, in nothing, owing to the Quixotic freak of the Swedish king, who, instead of acting on the defensive, and fighting for life itself in his own territories thought of nothing less than rushing full tilt against the whole power of Napoleon; and on the refusal of Moore to cooperate with him, by taking the Russian empire as his share of the universal melee, he attempted to throw the British general into prison, so that the latter was obliged to hasten home with his reinforcements, without the opportunity of striking a single stroke. In this way Graham, after all his hopes, had only obtained a short trip to the Baltic, which was anything but a pleasant one. On the return of Sir John to England, he was forthwith commissioned upon his eventful expedition to Spain, and to that land of stirring adventure and change Colonel Graham accompanied him, still acting as aide de-camp. He therefore participated in all the disastrous incidents of that most unfortunate campaign, without the opportunity of obtaining a commander's full share in the glory with which its termination was crowned. But all that could be won by an aide-de-camp he merited and secured. He was affectionately remembered by Moore in his dying moments at Corunna, and one of the last questions of the expiring hero was, "Are Colonel Graham and all my aides-de-camp well?" The services indeed which the colonel rendered to the army during its retreat were such, that Sheridan thus described them in his place in Parliament: " In the hour of peril, Graham was their best adviser; in the hour of disaster, Graham was their surest consolation." After a long and laborious run before the French columns in hot pursuit, Graham embarked with the army at Corunna, after it had dealt such a parting blow at the pursuers as sent them reeling backwards. But he was soon to return to Spain under better auspices, and there achieve a victory that should be wholly his own.

This change, so gratifying to the heart of Colonel Graham, did not occur until nearly three years afterwards. During the interval, however, he was again to be connected with those unlucky expeditions of which, it might be thought, he had already obtained somewhat more than his proper quota. This was the Walcheren expedition, in which he held the command of a division,